Oct. 15. 1853.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



359 



opinion they are not far wrong. It occurs in this 

 sense in numerous passages in Shakspeare ; for 

 instance : 



" Some merry mocking lord, belike." 



Love's Labour's Lost, 

 " O then, belike, she was old and gentle." 



Henry V. 

 " Belike, this show imports the argument." 



Hamlet. 



Such also was Johnson's opinion of the word, 

 for he represents it to be " from like, as by liheli- 

 Tiood;" and assigns to it the meanings of "pro- 

 babl;^^, likely, perhaps." However, I venture to 

 say, in opposition to so great an authority, that 

 there is no immediate connexion whatever between 

 the words belike and likely, with the exception of 

 the accidental similarity in the syllable like. 



We find three different meanings attached to 

 the same form like in English, viz. like, simills ; to 

 like, i. e. to be pleased with ; and the present word 

 belike, whose real meaning I propose to explain. 



The first is from the A.-S. lie, gelic; Low Geinn. 

 lick ; _ Dutch gelyk ; Dan. lig (which is said to 

 take its meaning ibrm lie, a corpse, i. e. an essence), 

 which word also forms our English termination -ly, 

 sometimes preserving its old form like ; as manly 

 or manlike. Godly or Godlike ; A.-S. werlic, Godlic ; 

 to which the Teut. adjectival termination lick is 

 analogous. 



The second form, to like, i. e. to be pleased with, 

 is quite distinct from the former (though it has 

 been thought akin to it on the ground that simili 

 similis placet) ; and Is derived from the A.-S. 

 lician, which is from lie, or lac, a gift; Low Germ. 

 licon ; Dutch lyken. 



The third form, the compound term belike 

 (mostly used adverbially) is from the A.-S. licgan, 

 belicgan, which means, to He by, near, or around ; 

 to attend, accompany ; Low Germ, and Dutch, 

 liggen; Germ, liegen. In the old German, we 

 have licken, ligin, liggen— jacere ; and geliggen — se 

 habere ; which last seems to be the exact counter- 

 part of our old English belike; and this it was 

 yhich first suggested to me what I conceive to be 

 its true meaning. We find the simple and com- 

 pound words in juxtaposition in Otfridi Evang,, 

 lib. i. cap. 23. 110. in vol. i. p. 221. of Schilter's 

 Thes. Teut. : 



" Thoh er nu biliban si, 



Farames thoh thar er si 

 Zi thiu'z nu sar giligge, 

 Thoh er bigraben ligge." 

 " Etsi vero is (Lazarus) jam mortuus est, 

 Eamus tamen ubi is sit, 



Quomodo id jam se habeat (quo in statu sint res ejus), 

 Etiamsi jam sepultus jaceat." 



On which Schilter remarks : 



"Zi thiu'z nu sar giligge quomodo se res habeat, 

 bodie standi verbo utimur,— wie es stehe, zustehe." 



\Ye thus see that the radical meaning of the 

 word belike is to lie or be near, to attend ; from 

 which it came to express the simple condition, or 

 state of a thing : and it is in this latter sense that 

 the word is used as an adverbial or rather an in- 

 terjectional expression, when it may be rendered, 

 it may be so, so it is, is it so, &c. Sometimes ironi- 

 cally, sometimes expressing chance, &c. ; in the 

 course of time it became superseded by the more 

 modern term_ perhaps. Instances of similar ellip- 

 tical expressions are common at the present day, 

 and will readily suggest themselves : the modern 

 please, used for entreaty, is analogous. 



It is not a little singular that this account of 

 the word belike enables us to understand a passage 

 in Macbeth, which has been unintelligible to all 

 the commentators and readers of Shakspeare down 

 to the present day. I allude to the following, 

 which stands in my first folio. Act IV. Sc. 3., thus : 



" . . . . . What I am truly 



Is thine, and my poor countries, to command : 

 Whither indeed before they heere approach. 

 Old Seyward, with ten thousand warlike men. 

 Already at a point, was setting foorth : 

 Now we'll together, and the chance of goodnesse 

 Be like our warranted quarrel." 



Now it is not easy to see why Malcolm should 

 wish that " chance" should " be like," i. e. similar 

 to, their "warranted quarrel;" inasmuch as that 

 quarrel was most unfortunate and disastrous. 

 Chance is either fortunate or unfortunate. The 

 epithet just, which might apply to the quarrel in 

 question, is utterly irreconcilable with chance. 

 Still this sense has pleased the editors, and they 

 have made " of goodnesse " a jirecatory and inter- 

 jectlonal expression. Surely it is far more pro- 

 bable that the poet wrote belike (belicgan, geliggen') 

 as one word, and that the meaning of the passage 

 is simply " May good fortune attend our enter- 

 prise." Mr. Collier's old corrector passes over 

 this diflSculty in silence, doubtless owing to the 

 circumstance that the word was well understood 

 in his time. 



I have alluded to the word like as expressive 

 in the English language of three distinct ideas, 

 and in the A.-S. of at least four ; is it not possible 

 that these meanings, which, as we find the words 

 used, are undoubtedly widely distinct, having 

 travelled to us by separate channels, may never- 

 theless have had originally one and the same 

 source ? I should be glad to elicit the opinion of 

 some one of your more learned correspondents as 

 to whether the unused Hebrew f?> may not be 

 that source. H. C. E. 



Rectory, Hereford. 



